Snapshots

Here's a couple snapshots of these bracelets that I just love and this really cool shirt with chains on it.

Gold cuff, a gift from my godmother, chain bracelet, bought it on a trip to Chicago, and shirt, thrifted!

-Katie

Sequins and Rocks

While thrifting I recently picked up a couple of cool shirts with some really awesome designs on them. I love how each shirt has something different on it. As for the necklaces, I picked them up at some festivals a while ago and I just love wearing them. The colors on the rocks are so pretty.

Beautiful detail right?

front of sequin jacket!

Necklace that my mom gave me.

 

 One of my favorite rings! It belongs to my mother.

Jewelry Book Pictures & Sketches (Part 1)

I've been working on this post for a week or so now, and only Part 1 is done. So, read on!

Last week my books came in, and since then I've been doing nothing but sketching. Buying these books for some extra inspiration definitely did help!

Below are some pictures of some amazing pieces. Most of this stuff is pretty old. Like 1500-1900's old. The stuff from the 1500-1800's is really the most exciting though and is very similar to what i've been designing! You know how designers these days are bringing back styles from all kinds of eras, well, I have yet to see anyone do anything from the 1500+'s, or even AD (After-death) and BC (before christ)! It would be great to design modern jewelry for today, but it actually looks like its ancient jewelry.

The Gleninsheen Gorget, 700 BC.

I love the ribbed collar, along with the circular bosses, and theres a spike right in the middle of the circles, ANOTHER thing im into, spikes on necklaces! I could see people today wearing it, although its obviously not very practical, well, nothing im interested in is ever practical so nevermind!

Tor Abbey Jewel, Mid 16th Century pendant.

This is an english pendant meant as a reminder of man's mortality. But really, I just think its cool that they have a little skeleton in a coffin. Thats totally something I could work with.

Lunula from Co. Kerry, anywhere from 1800 to 1500 BC.

Reminds me of something from Egypt but I know its not from there. More like the Bronze Age somewhere in Ireland.

and here's another form of the Lunula that I found...

(Middle piece) Heracles knot from a diadem, 2nd century BC. Originated in Egypt.

I had to take this picture myself so its a little crappy, a lot crappy. But it really caught my eye, so I drew it as if it was in actual necklace form.

On the squares theres all types of small designs, then theres the knot (which was surprisingly confusing to draw, actually!) , and in the middle of that knot theres a dark colored red stone (I don't know if its really a stone, Im just guessing)

Also, check out the bottom necklace with the crescent-shape pendant, 2nd century BC. Originated in Asia.

1850-1775 BC

This one I have drawn so many different versions of but im no where near done with any of them yet! This necklace dates from the end of the Twelfth Dynasty and was apparently found in some tomb of a lady called Senebtisi, so im guessing theres not a lot of them out there. How sad! This necklace is gorgeous.

The Tara Brooch, AD 700

I first saw this necklace when I was reading this art magazine, and I was so excited to see it in the book! It inspired me to draw this necklace, one of my first sets of designs! This design is a couple months old and I can't believe I'm seeing it again!

Theres a gold plate with some designs on it, then some "elephant tusks" with some sort of red stone or crystal. Rubies would be ideal for this necklace.

All for now! I'll post Part 2 as soon as I can!

xoxo

Feathery Friends

I think the fashion community is seriously lacking in feather jewelry. I can see little bits and pieces of feather jewelry coming up every now and then when I go out to shop. But i never see anything that I would wear. The things I'm seeing aren't extravagant enough! They're too boring, and too small!

So I decided to draw my own designs for feather jewelry and look around for some other feathery things that catch my eye.

I really enjoy feather jewelry. It reminds me of when I was younger my neighbor, me, and her mother used to go to antique stores that were all outside shops and they were run by real Indians. Each outside store had tons of feathery jewelry and other things that the Indians made.

We also would go antique shopping downtown www.cherokeeantiquerow.net/ and shop there too. I hope I get to do this again sometime! I'd love to go down there and take pictures and find neat little things.

Lust

 Alright, heres some necklaces that I've been creeping on recently. The first set is by far my favorite!

Hanna Bernhard

Can you believe someone actually came up with this stuff?! Wait, I actually can believe it...seriously, these necklaces are amazing, just take a look for yourself. I've never seen or even conjured up anything like this before.

They're made by a paris-based jewelry designer named Hanna Bernhard and you can visit her website http://www.french-bakelite.com/ to see so much more of her amazing jewelry.

This stingray is my favorite piece of hers. You probably can't read it but in this article it says that the stingray goes for $3200 at V.O.D (a boutique in Dallas, TX) and is 14 by 19 inches! I'd wear it, even if i'd need a neckbrace later on...

The rest of these pictures are straight off french-bakelite.com so thats why they say 'sold' on them.

This one I saw a while ago on www.seaofshoes.com. Great blog btw!

This one is another great masterpiece!

Gasp!

These are all some really amazing pieces by Hanna Bernhard. They're not even far from what im into designing!

more...

Heres some necklaces from a more antique/vintage line called Razza.

                           

This is all for now!

I really didn't want to make this an extremely long post so another part will be coming soon! For now (the post named 'Sketches' will be showing you some of my own designs.

Photo Credit!

Pictures from www.french-bakelite.com

and Razza Jewelry pictures from Ruby Lane, Etsy, Antique & Collectible, GoAntiques all found through Google Images.